Algerian activists denounce neighbourhood gangs through social networks
Algerian activists have posted warnings on pages they have created to alert or denounce, via social networks, drug traffickers and those involved in so-called ‘neighbourhood gangs’. One of these pages is the Facebook profile ‘Anti-Neighbourhood Gangs’.
On the social networks, things like: ‘Watch out... This young man sells drugs in building number 8’ or ‘it was so and so is behind the attack by robbing and beating up the neighbour’ were posted. So that victims can identify the perpetrators and also to guide the security services.
The use of social networks
According to the media Al Arab, users of these profiles have been surprised by the number of reports requested to be published on social networks, although with caution due to the veracity of the information they contained, as some of them could be a settling of scores.
Youssef Quneidra, a social specialist, mentions that ‘the culture of reporting is deeply rooted in civilised societies, unlike some societies that consider reporting a sin or live by the principle of each to his own’.
Quneidra also stated: ‘It is difficult for the security services in some countries, which are experiencing rising crime rates, to control a number of popular neighbourhoods, and therefore these initiatives are a support to society’.
He also expressed concern about the use of unknown pages that publish information on specific individuals and explained that complaints are not regulated in Algeria, and even anonymous messages sent to the security services are not taken into account, reducing the solutions available to citizens to electronic leaflets that can sometimes be inaccurate and harm individuals.
Increased neighbourhood gang activity
Law enforcement is working to tackle the various neighbourhood gangs, whose activity has recently doubled so that it now threatens public safety and the safety of society, as members' deviant behaviour has contributed to a record escalation in the numbers of knife use and criminal attacks.
What is frightening about this is that this phenomenon has become an organised activity aimed at controlling neighbourhoods and flooding them with drugs of all kinds because these gangs share residential areas, according to security personnel.
According to neighbours, each gang has its own logic and mode of control. On the one hand, some are dedicated to specialised trafficking of a particular drug. On the other hand, there are some that carry out robberies of various kinds. The different criminal gangs cannot interfere with each other and if this is not done, there are conflicts involving bladed weapons, sticks and truncheons.
The police services attributed most of the reasons for the formation of these gangs to an attempt to extend criminal dominance and influence in relation to the trafficking of drugs and psychotropic substances due to the fact that most of the suspects were youths with a criminal record.
In relation to the figures recorded by the security services, 165 gang-related cases were registered in the urban centre involving 722 persons, of whom 479 were placed in temporary detention and another 113 under judicial supervision.
Specialists also claim that murders account for approximately 50 % of criminal cases and the docket of a criminal session may include 250 cases involving 140 cases of intentional murder, beatings or injuries. In addition, an informed source, according to Al Arab media, mentioned that death sentences have recently been handed down.
